Simphome

It’s no secret how much I love West Elm. Since it’s only walking distance from me (so dangerous…) I often go for inspiration and to pick up the odd little vase or accessory. A little while ago, I fell for this practical and small-space friendly piece. How perfect is a laptop stand to blog with or to hold your tea? WestElm used to sold it for $179 {source is missing} Pretty, but I couldn’t possibly legitimize spending 239 on a piece so easy to make. Yes, not bad by West Elm standards, but I knew I could do better. Then, one day shopping in Ikea , I came across this little table for a grand total of 20 bucks. { Buy from Amazon | if you follow this link I will get commission} {around $10 cheaper at IKEA } Sold! (Don’t mind the terrible state my chair is in. I’ve since replaced it, but that’s a post for another day!) I don’t actually mind the glass, but let’s be honest, it’s impossible to keep clean in my house. It was the perfect candidate for a thick wood top like the West Elm version!...

My draperies looked like shower curtains . At least, that is what I thought . Until I decided I want to make this new change. Two months ago, I decided I would try purchasing ready-made drapes to replace the existing patterned fabric I had hanging in my living room. I wanted something white and sleek. But, I didn’t want to do any sewing. I found drapes at Ikea that were long enough and quite sleek but were slightly leaning toward shower curtain status. Not exactly the look I was going for. ( Although, kitty didn’t seem to mind .) I decided to dress them up by adding some greek key trim. I taped a length of waxed paper on the table and then attached the top of a drape panel over it. I measured the trim and then glued it on the top of the panel with fabric glue. Four panels later (and the light touch of an iron), the drapes looked more like what I originally envisioned. (White columns of loveliness.) Adding the trim to ready-made drapes was a quick fix into bringing stock curtains closer...

A little while ago I started a segment about containing our paper clutter. Avoiding piles of paper is one of the biggest challenges for me so I am determined to tackle it! Last time, I spoke about how I organize our receipts. Now, I’m tackling our mail. Shaun and I take on different chores in the house, and one of mine is the mail. One would assume, what with all the companies that offer electronic instead of mailed billing, that this particular task wouldn’t be much of an issue. Done But somehow, it still is, at least for me! Flyers, bank statements, invoices an invitations all seem to end up on our coffee table. I don’t know where to put them all, so I avoid going through the pile, the pile gets that much more daunting, and it ends up being a vicious cycle. To avoid the pile up, I decided a mail sorter would be the best solution for me. { source } This one from Pottery Barn is pretty, but at 70 dollars (!) CAD, I definitely wanted a cheaper option. I thought about making one myself, ...

Here’s a quick update on one of the projects we’ve recently completed in our California Cottage. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to have–definitely a must on my dream house list–a window seat! Before I tell you all about how we DIYed this window seat using components of the Ikea Stolmen closet system, let me tell you how a window seat ended up in this spot to begin with. Back in 2013, when we purchased this home, the former homeowners were using this corner as an informal dining area. Below is how the family room looked the first time we walked through. There’s a more formal dining area in the front room, but this is the spot closest to the kitchen where there was room for a table that would seat more than 1.75 persons or be directly in front of an exterior door. For a while, we tried having our kitchen table in that spot, too. I didn’t love it. The formal dining space was actually fewer steps away from our kitchen. When we found a big, beautiful table for that area, I decided t...

Are you one of those people who can make anything? Maybe you’re the type of person who likes to spend weekends replacing your kitchen, building your own Olympic size swimming pool, or perhaps adding an entire wing to your house. You’re a person who can read blueprints, operate power tools, and wrestle lumber into place without breaking a sweat. Most of us would rather get root canal without an anesthetic than do those kind of jobs. We don’t like to spend our time working with anything more complicated than a hammer or screwdriver. Or, more likely, Scotch tape and scissors. What do you do, however, if you have brilliant ideas for how to make your children’s lives more fun by sprucing up their bedroom, say, but you don’t have the technical skill to pull that off? Do you spend a gazillion dollars to hire a contractor to do it? Do you tell your kids you’ll buy them a new video game if they’ll stop asking you to make changes in their living space? Well, now there’s a third option — you can ...